CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6487, 16 May 1899, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

— ■ • -— The expansion of the githk growth gantic combinations known ok the as trusts, predicted # dozen; trust. years cigo in " Looking B.ack_ward" has, since the close of the Spanish- American war, progressed at a rate which may well cause some alarm. So vast has been the growth of this system in the United Sfcates .as to amount to an industrial and financial revolution. It is stated that all the chief industries of modern life in America, save only farming and banking, are to-day concentrated in the hands of fifty-four great combinations, controlling among them ar capital of three hundred and sixty-six million- pounds sterling. Nearly twenty of these fifty-four trusts were, it is said, organised this year, and ten of the others last year. The evolution of a trust, says a Home paper, is. seen in the history of the American Steel and Wire Company. Although one of the newest industrial companies, it has attracted very large dealings, and has a capital stock of 90,000,000d01. It was formed in January last, to acquire the properties of the old American Steel and Wire Company, which was incorporated on March 22, 1898, with a capital of 24,000,000d61. The greatest of the new industrial trusts in point of capital is the Federal Steel Company. Its capital of 200,000,000d0l is greater than that of any single corporation, in the whole industrial group;"; ■•• .The United States Leather Company is one of the largest of the iridus-. trial trusts, having a capital of ; 128,000j000---dollars; of which 64,000,000d0l is 8 per cent cumulative preferred stock. The International Paper Company was organised at the 'beginning of last year, and bought twentyfive of the leading pulp and paper mills in the country, which produced from 75 to 90 per cent of all the news paper made east of Chicago. Such are a few of the enormous aggregations of wealth and power which have changed the face of the industrial world of America. By many people they are regarded as a menace to the interests of the .country ; but it has been- remarked that this amalgamation . of millionaire interests will promote as nothing else can, the real solidarity of labour. Whether it will do so, and whether the tendency towards monopolies wiE be, in the words of Bellamy, '' recognised at last. . ... as a process which only needs to complete its logical evolution to open a golden future to_ humanity," must be left to time to determine. ■..s Certain letters recently ritualism addressed to the " Times " . and. its by a Rev A. R. Cavalier, opponents, while describing the methods adopted by the Ritualists, afford to us at this end of the world an explanation of the strong. feeling which has been stirred up in England against the Romanising party in the Church. Mr Cavalier wrote, complaining of " the secret working of the Ritualists among the young" in his own family. Quite recently, his letter ran, he discovered that his fourth son, a boy of, seventeen, had, ' for a year and a half, been secretly attending Ritualistic Churches, and latterly had even gone so far as to " confess." In the lad's .possession were found a number of books of a distinctly Catholic tendency, such as " Catholic Prayers for Church of England People," "Oißcium Parvum Beatae Mariae Virginis," " Stranger's Guide to High Mass," and Cardinal' Manning's " Love of Jesus to Penitents," . the last-named of which he said had been given him on the occasion of his first confession. The boy admitted that his confessor, Father Bridge, knew he was acting without his father's knowledge, and advised him not to tell his parent, at any rate for the present. The youth was preparing for a University career, with a view to entering the church. This idea had to be abandoned, and a trip to the colonies substituted. Just, however, when he was about to start, the boy quitted home suddenly, without leaving any clue to his whereabouts. After a fortnight had elapsed, police investigation disclosed the fact that the runaway was living with a noted Ritualistic clergyman, by whom Mr Cavalier asserts he was practically decoyed from home. Before he could be induced to; return he spent some months in an institution for training missionaries, and such was the severity of the discipline there that, to quote Mr ■Cavalier again, " when at last he rejoined his family, the innocent, happy and' dutiful boy of the past was melancholy, morbid, and in an extreme state of nervous weakness." It is only fair to the Ritualists to state that they deny the charges made by Mr Cavalier. Mr Bridge asserts that he neither advised the lad not to tell ibis parents, nor suggested sacramental confession to him. He adds that as far as he knows young Cavalier came to him of his own accord. The director of the missionary institution affirms that he told the. boy that his first duty was. to return home, and that the latter replied- that his' father had refubed to support him:: Possibly the youth its : something of a religio-maniac ; but the incident is sufficient to show that there is some reason for the bitterness which pervades English ecclesiastical circles at the present time. Tht lucifer match which the deadly will strike anywhere, is a . • match. vast improvement on the flint, steel, and tinder-box of our grandfathers, but, liTce fundry other "appliances of civilisation," it casts dearly, if not in money, in human suffering and loss of life. The phosphorus used in its manufacture is, as has been often pointed out, a cause of fearful disease among the .workers in match factories. ." Phossy jaw " the operatives call this dread ailment ; " phosphorus necrosis" is the name bestowed upon it by the doctors. Through the action of the phosphorus the teeth, and often the jaws, of the unfortunate match-makers are absolutely eaten awtiy. Dr Oliver, one of a commission appointed by the Home Secretary to inquire into the ; use of the deadly drug in the manufacture of matches, found in a match factory in . Srhsia a- woman, aged thirty-eight, working in the safeties department, the whole of whose- lower jaw ■ had been -removed for •phosphorus necrosis." She had worked. !as a box-filler from 1887 .to 1894, .when she became ill. . Similar horrors in England led to the "appointment • of the commission,, which was ' instructed" to report upon — 1. The nature and extent of- the dangers attending the use of yellow .and white phosphorus 2.' The means' whereby these dnn. i gers can be lessened. 3. The practicability of d : scontinuing -the use of yellow and white phosphorus. The exnerts were further charged to inqxiire into the personal precautions which' might be; ; . taken by .the workpeople, and they were/given; a,roving cimmission ■* to fee what wa.s being done in. foreign countries as well as at Home. The : commissioners found the cpntiitipns of the industry in England far 'frcm satisfactory. It was notorious tliat. in one important factory in the East End the. neglect of prper ventilation— an absolutely vital, matter — played a large part in the ravages of necrosis. On the Continent affairs were '

much better, and two of tie .commissioners Dr Thorpe Ana Dr Oliver, found much to admire in the large, airy, .clean factories there, with their .mechanical contrivances and their precautions for the workers' safety and comfort. There appeared to be one factory, at any rate, in England to compare with the : Continental standard that of the Diamond .Match Company at Liverpool. Here practically thY tfjiole of the work was done by machinery, * the wood being fed into one end of the, machine in small blocks, which are cut up, dipped dried, and packed, and turnedmatches at the other end. In Switzerland and Denmark laws prohibiting the manufacture, sale and importation of matches made with- ordinary yejjoyy phosphorus, have absolutely stopped" the prevalence of phosphorus necrosis. ..'..., . .- The maiden speech of a WAixm* member of Parliament, as a speeches, rule, is a very small matter to tb? world at large, but it is a big thing to .the ., member himself. This fact may account for the painful, inerr vousness with, which many statesmen begin .a record of brilliant speeches, and it may also account for the dismal failures of maiden essayg. A writer in an English magazine has recently been searching the "Journal of the House of Commons," and has collected some interesting stories. ' The "Journal" for Dec. 3, 1601, contains the announcement that "Mr Zachary Lock began to speak, who for very fear shook so that he could not proceed;" but" stood still awhile; and at length sat -down;" "/-'The i "Journal of -the Long Parliament "' ' gives the following verbatim report of a maiden speech: — "Behold, sir, another feature of the procrastinating system— not so the Athenian patriots— Sir, the Romans — Sir, I havejost the clue to my argument-r-Sir, Sir,— Sir, I will sit down." Lord Guildford, the elldest son of Lord North, vividly ■describes his fright when he first attempted to address the House. " Having risen and caught the Speaker's eye," he said, "I brought out two or three sentences, when a mist seemed to rise before my eyes. I then Jbst my recollection, and could see nothing but the Speaker's wig, whicb swelled, and swelled, and swelled, till it covered the whole House. I then sank back to my seat." The article quoted from mentions among the cautious beginners Peel, who hardily spoke at all during his first year in. Parliament'; Derby, who sat stolidly for four years in the House, and then spoke on a ' Gas Bill ; and Gladstone. Perhaps they were influenced by the shocking "example of Gerard Hamilton. He made a yery brilliant speech at the first, but never spoke in the House again for forty years, it is stated, for fear lest he should wreck the reputation he had made. An accidental victory was won in a maiden speech by Lord Finch. His erfort was in support of Sir Richard Steele, whom it was proposed to expel from the House, on account of a pamphlet entitled "The Crises" he had written against the Tories. Lord Finch was overcome with nervousness even before he began his speech, and sat down again. "It is strange," he muttered as he did so, " that I cannot speak for this man, though I would readily fight for him." The words passed round the House ; the members recognised the spirit in which they had been uttered, and they encouraged the speaker \yith cheers. Lord Finch then sprang to his feet and made a stirring and an effective speech.